Anita Demonte Laughs Last

A collection of Anita O’Day’s finest Verve recordings, 1957-1962. The 3-CD set gives you 75 reasons to fall in love again with Anita O’Day’s unique quality of voice and her bluesy style.

A collection of Anita O’Day’s finest Verve recordings, 1957-1962. The 3-CD set gives you 75 reasons to fall in love again with Anita O’Day’s unique quality of voice and her bluesy style.

Few female singers matched the hard-swinging Anita O'Day for sheer exuberance and skill in all areas of jazz vocals: her splendid improvising, wide range, dynamic tone, and innate sense of rhythm made her one of the most enjoyable singer of the age. O'Day's first appearances in a big band shattered the traditional image of a demure female vocalist by swinging just as hard as the other musicians on the bandstand, best heard on her vocal trading with Roy Eldridge on the Gene Krupa recording "Let Me Off Uptown." After making her solo debut in the mid-'40s, she incorporated bop modernism into her vocals and recorded over a dozen of the best vocal LPs of the era for Verve during the 1950s and '60s. Though hampered during her peak period by heavy drinking and, later, drug addiction, she made a comeback and continued singing into the new millennium. Born Anita Belle Colton in Chicago, she was raised largely by her mother and entered her first marathon-dance contest while barely a teenager. She spent time on the road and occasionally back at home, later moving from dancing to singing at the contests. After bad experiences amid brief tenures with Benny Goodman and even Raymond Scott, O'Day earned a place in Gene Krupa's band in 1941.

Few female singers matched the hard-swinging Anita O'Day for sheer exuberance and skill in all areas of jazz vocals: her splendid improvising, wide range, dynamic tone, and innate sense of rhythm made her one of the most enjoyable singer of the age. O'Day's first appearances in a big band shattered the traditional image of a demure female vocalist by swinging just as hard as the other musicians on the bandstand, best heard on her vocal trading with Roy Eldridge on the Gene Krupa recording "Let Me Off Uptown." After making her solo debut in the mid-'40s, she incorporated bop modernism into her vocals and recorded over a dozen of the best vocal LPs of the era for Verve during the 1950s and '60s. Though hampered during her peak period by heavy drinking and, later, drug addiction, she made a comeback and continued singing into the new millennium. Born Anita Belle Colton in Chicago, she was raised largely by her mother and entered her first marathon-dance contest while barely a teenager. She spent time on the road and occasionally back at home, later moving from dancing to singing at the contests. After bad experiences amid brief tenures with Benny Goodman and even Raymond Scott, O'Day earned a place in Gene Krupa's band in 1941.

Having made an enormous contribution to the establishment of the Nashville Sound and the modernisation of country music, Anita Kerr felt the need to expand her artistic horizons and in 1965, made the move from Nashville to Hollywood. She wanted to work with different people, to get her own songs recorded, to play jazz, to conduct an orchestra, to take on more ambitious and more varied projects musically, and to form a vocal group which, rather than be confined to studio sessions, might also appear in club and concert settings. Her arrival on the West Coast was well timed. She had just fought off The Beatles to win a Grammy for the album We Dig Mancini and she was quickly able to assemble a stellar Anita Kerr Singers (B.J Baker: alto, Gene Merlino: tenor; Bob Tebow: bass, with Anita herself as soprano and soloist) and secure a contract more tailored to her needs with Warner Brothers. The result over the next two years, were these five superbly fashioned albums.

The Spanish Jazz Factory label assembled this collection of Anita O'Day sides recorded between 1942 and 1950, with a variety of orchestras led by Stan Kenton, Gene Krupa, Alvy West, Will Bradley, Abbey Brown, Paul Jordan, Jack Pleis, and Ben Homer. Though the liner notes definitely aren't up to the quality of an average major-label compilation, collectors will be overjoyed to see so much attention to detail regarding the early career of an important jazz singer, from evergreens like "And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine" to novelty fare like "Tennessee Waltz" and "Yeah Boo."

The Spanish Jazz Factory label assembled this collection of Anita O'Day sides recorded between 1942 and 1950, with a variety of orchestras led by Stan Kenton, Gene Krupa, Alvy West, Will Bradley, Abbey Brown, Paul Jordan, Jack Pleis, and Ben Homer. Though the liner notes definitely aren't up to the quality of an average major-label compilation, collectors will be overjoyed to see so much attention to detail regarding the early career of an important jazz singer, from evergreens like "And Her Tears Flowed Like Wine" to novelty fare like "Tennessee Waltz" and "Yeah Boo."